A long-lost opera by the legendary music pedagogue Nadia Boulanger has been exhumed from history, receiving its world premiere on a new recording. The work, La Ville Morte, composed over a century ago but never performed, offers a rare glimpse into Boulanger's early ambitions as a composer before she dedicated her life to teaching.
The Lost Work of a Legendary Teacher
While Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) is revered as the 20th century's most influential teacher of composition, her own creative output remains largely obscure. She largely abandoned composing in the early 1920s following profound personal tragedies: the deaths of her prodigiously talented younger sister, Lili Boulanger, and her mentor, the pianist and composer Raoul Pugno.
It was with Pugno that she collaborated on La Ville Morte, a four-act opera based on a play by Gabriele D’Annunzio. Scheduled for a premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1914, the production was cancelled due to the outbreak of the First World War. The opera survived only as a vocal score, its full orchestration lost to time.
A Historic Recording from New York
This historic gap has now been filled by conductor Neal Goren and the Talea Ensemble. Their recording, released on the Pentatone label, is taken from performances in New York last year. Faced with the incomplete manuscript, the team created a minimal orchestration for an ensemble of eleven players to realise Boulanger's vision.
The opera's plot, set in the ruins of Mycenae—the 'dead city' of the title—unfolds a complex tale of love, lust, and ambition among a quartet of archaeologists. Musically, the work navigates a soundworld that references Wagner, Fauré, and early Debussy.
An Incomplete Musical Picture
Despite the dedicated efforts of Goren and a hard-working cast of four singers—Harvey, Rubin, Dennis, and Williams—the recording reveals a work that struggles to find a coherent voice. The critical consensus suggests La Ville Morte never fully convinces in its chosen stylistic modes and loses dramatic momentum before its short final act.
Nevertheless, this premiere recording stands as a significant act of musical archaeology. It shifts the spotlight from Boulanger the revered teacher to Boulanger the aspiring composer, completing a chapter in the biography of one of classical music's most formidable figures. While it may not rewrite musical history, it provides an invaluable and fascinating insight into a road not taken.
